Little Sal
Allagash Brewing Company in Portland, Maine, United States 🇺🇸
Sour / Wild Beer - Flavoured Rotating|
Score
7.67
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Sour Ale brewed with Blueberries and Aged in Red Wine Barrels
Few things are more synonymous with Maine than blueberries. After years of making wild beers without ever using Maine’s state fruit, a tiny farm in Windham, Maine, asked us to try a beer with their blueberries. The beer tasted so good that we asked to use their entire crop.
To make Little Sal, we add wild, lowbush blueberries to sour red barrel-aged ale. The resulting beer is dark violet in color, with earthy aromas of blueberry and oak. Its flavor is juicy, tart, and unmistakably blueberry: a true taste of Maine.
Few things are more synonymous with Maine than blueberries. After years of making wild beers without ever using Maine’s state fruit, a tiny farm in Windham, Maine, asked us to try a beer with their blueberries. The beer tasted so good that we asked to use their entire crop.
To make Little Sal, we add wild, lowbush blueberries to sour red barrel-aged ale. The resulting beer is dark violet in color, with earthy aromas of blueberry and oak. Its flavor is juicy, tart, and unmistakably blueberry: a true taste of Maine.
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7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7.5
Texture 8
Overall 8
Reviewed from notes.
Bottle to tulip.
Appearance: dark blue to black color with a thin pinkish colored foamy cap of a head which dissipated nicely to leave some light lace
Aroma: blueberry sweet and tart character with some dark grapes and light funky to sour scents in the background, barrel sweet and tart accents
Flavor: blends the prior noted aromas to a fine sweet to tart quality initially then has a sly sour edge come in nicely; finishes blueberry tart and sweet
Texture: medium bodied, leaning to be a sipper; some smoothness but also some tart to sour assertiveness
Overall: pretty nicely done fruited sour/tart ale I would welcome again.
Bottle to tulip.
Appearance: dark blue to black color with a thin pinkish colored foamy cap of a head which dissipated nicely to leave some light lace
Aroma: blueberry sweet and tart character with some dark grapes and light funky to sour scents in the background, barrel sweet and tart accents
Flavor: blends the prior noted aromas to a fine sweet to tart quality initially then has a sly sour edge come in nicely; finishes blueberry tart and sweet
Texture: medium bodied, leaning to be a sipper; some smoothness but also some tart to sour assertiveness
Overall: pretty nicely done fruited sour/tart ale I would welcome again.
Tried
from Bottle
on 27 Feb 2026
at 15:28
7.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 9
Draught at Monk's: pours reddish blue with whitish head. Aroma is loads of funk, blueberry, some wood. Taste is lightly sour. Not too sweet. Some sweetness. Nice.
Tried
on 22 Sep 2024
at 21:15
8.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 8
11/14/21 I think I bought this in Brevard early in 2020. My wife had had this before & my focus had slipped. Price made me wince. Quick-hitting faintly blushed head. Violet grape drank. Jammy sour & sharp berry wine & grape Skittles nose. Not getting obvious & ordinary blueberry. Pucker sour, berry, lime, lots of stem & pithy bitterness. Bright. Thinned out red wine in sauce. Lingering blueberry skin finish. High acid, very carbonated, obviously dry. I oddly feel somewhat incapacitated for a 6% brew. Wait for the backwash. Good.
Tried
on 05 Mar 2024
at 00:16
7/10
Tried
from Bottle
on 16 Sep 2022
at 22:01
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Beer tasting at Ingos - web SB 2022-06-18 Göteborg AR: Sour blueberries, wee citrus, some elegance, tart AP: blueberr juicy F: Sour blueberries, wee citrus, some elegance, tart
Tried
on 27 Jun 2022
at 23:13
8.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
375ml bottle pours out red topped with a small fizzy head. Nose is nice jammy berries some funky barrel notes. Taste is more of the nice jammy berries funky barrel very nice.
Tried
from Bottle
on 23 May 2022
at 01:50
8.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
375ml bottle at share. Light ruby body with a small airy white head. Light fruity aroma, grapes. Taste is mildly tart, adding some faint berry notes to the grapes, woody. .
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 May 2022
at 22:20
7.3/10
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Appearance 7
Aroma 7.5
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Pours clear, dark purplebrown. No real head. Scent is full, complex, aged fruits. Lovely. taste is full, tart, milder complexity of acids, yet OK. Faded fruityness. not bad at all, just not amazing.
Tried
on 02 May 2022
at 12:31
7.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Tap. Hazy red color with white head. Aroma is berries, a bit milky. Taste is milky, blueberries indeed, tannins from the skin.
Tried
from Draft
on 20 Apr 2022
at 09:13
8/10
Tried
from Draft
on 18 Apr 2022
at 18:43